Imaginary
by Misery Severity
Summary: Sonic and Amy Rose bought a mysterious painting from a thrift store for their daughter, Lavender Rose. Unbeknownst to the Hedgehog family, the antique artwork has a haunting history behind it. It has killed little girls in the past. Now, it's very possible that their daughter will be next and the only help they can get is from the one who sold them the haunted painting.
1. The Past

**All Sonic Characters (c) to SEGA and Sonic Team**

* * *

><p>The Past<p>

1820:

A young female hedgehog named Jessie was only five years old when she died. She jumped out of the high story window. Her distraught parents never knew that little Jessie was diagnosed with any depression nor did she have any suicidal tendencies. She used to be happy and playful despite not having that much friends at her time. Before her untimely death however, they knew about Jessie having some sort of imaginary friend named Kimmerie. They remembered Jessie mentioning that Kimmerie was a very sad and lonely girl and she needed a friend to be there for her.

Could her sadness be the cause of Jessie's apparent suicide?

The parents never knew Kimmerie until about a few days after purchasing a painting for their daughter. The painting they owned showed a portrait of a young ivory hedgehog girl—approximately six years old—looking deeply sad with her ebony eyes crying tears as heavy as a waterfall. It's so sad, that whoever laid their eyes on it would feel the same way.

Unbeknownst to Jessie's parents, the painting of the Crying Girl hides a dark story.

1880:

Another fate happened and it was the exact same fate as Jessie.

Another hedgehog couple found the exact same painting from an attic—the exact same portrait previously owned by Jessie's family—and they decided to keep it no matter how depressing it looked. A few days after hanging it on their wall, their five-year-old daughter, Lucy, met her imaginary friend one morning when she woke up. Her name—Kimmerie.

Lucy's parents were perplexed about her playing with Kimmerie. She even mentioned about Kimmerie's sadness and that she needed to be with her. Things turned out worse when Lucy kept getting into trouble in the household; when scolded by her parents, she kept blaming everything on Kimmerie. They didn't believe her.

Tragically, after one week of being friends with Kimmerie, Lucy met her demise when she jumped out of the third-story window. Her parents were devastated about their only daughter's death and they assumed that it's their entire fault. Their constant punishment for her must've been the reason why she took her own life away.

At least that's what they think.

1900:

The painting of the Crying Girl was purchased by another hedgehog couple and their four children. Cherry Blossom, the youngest of the four, was the third girl to ever had Kimmerie as her friend—just like Jessie and Lucy. Yes, she believed in Kimmerie's loneliness and sadness. Yes, her family was flummoxed about her strange bonding with her invisible friend. Yes, Cherry met the same fate as Kimmerie's two previous friends—much to her family's pain and devastation.

The coincidence of the similar deaths of these young girls has brought attention to others today. Some believed that the deaths weren't for suicidal reasons at all. Some believed that the theory of why these girls in different times killed themselves was because of Kimmerie. And some claimed that the portrait is haunted and possessed.

The questions remained: who exactly is Kimmerie? Does the painting of the Crying Girl have something to do with her? And…

Who will be the next victim?


	2. The Present

The Present

2014:

"Sonikku," Amy Rose, who is currently six months pregnant, is holding up a blue baby onesie up to show her husband, Sonic. "What do you think of this?"

Sonic, who is holding hands with their five-year-old daughter, Lavender Rose, takes a look at the baby outfit. "Looks adorable, but what if our son's fur ended up light blue? If we put that on him, it'll look like he's not wearing anything at all." He laughs at the joke.

"We may not know for sure," Amy chuckles while putting the onesie back in its rack. She continues to look through the baby section of the thrift store. "I think we should find some other colors too, like green and yellow. After all," She looks at Sonic and Lavender Rose. "We are having fraternal twins."

Sonic recalls about the gender of their unborn babies. "Oh yeah, that's right. Not only are we having a son, another daughter too." Sonic looks down at Lavender and she looks back while sucking her tiny thumb. "Isn't that right, baby girl? You're going to have a baby brother AND a baby sister." He winks at her.

Inquisitively, like all little children her age, Lavender removes her thumb from her mouth. "Daddy? What does 'fwaternal' mean?"

"It means 'different,'" Sonic answers.

"Different how?" Lavender asks again.

Amy answers for her, "Usually, twins are identical, which means they look alike. But for fraternal, it means they don't look alike and normally, it's one boy and one girl."

"Oh," Lavender coos when she understood what they said.

When Amy is done rummaging through the baby clothes, she takes some of her choices in her hands and shows them to Sonic and Lavender. They both accepted the ones she chose. Some of them may look old but with Amy's skills at sewing and redesigning, they would look brand new. It'll be as if they weren't brought from the thrift store.

Holding the clothes in her arms, Amy looks at her husband and daughter. "Why don't you two find something you like while I take a look at some other baby stuff?"

"We'd like that," Sonic remarks, "Come, Lavender. Let's go take a look around."

"Okay," Lavender Rose says while the father and daughter walk apart from Amy hand to hand. Amy heads to the section where the baby toys are stored on the shelves.

Sonic lets go of Lavender's hand when the two made their way to the men's clothing section. "Daddy's going to look around here for a second. I could use another shirt." He tells her.

He goes through the circular rack of used men's shirts. Not many of them caught his attention, possibly because the designs and patterns are too tacky for him. Some of them are plaids with ugly dark colors. Some are solids with unattractive colors, like brown and off-white. Some are vintage Hawaiian shirts with dissimilar bright colors. And there are even several novelty shirts; one of them saying "I'm with Stupid" with an arrow pointing to the right and a bright pink one that says "Real Men Wear Pink."

Sonic is either gagging at the tacky designs and colors or laughing at the prints on the novelty shirts. This went on for a few minutes; Lavender has been waiting patiently for her daddy but then quickly became bored herself. Turning around to take a glimpse at something, her eyes are fixed to the painting section that is not even too far away from where Sonic is. Wanting to take a look at the old and used paintings, she strolls to the section.

Sonic notices where his little lady is going. "Stay close, baby girl." He tells her before going back to his browsing.

Lavender Rose stood right in front of the painting. Her emerald green eyes move around to perceive the portraits and colorful landscapes. She saw one with a baby lamb and its mother sitting together on the field, much to her adoration. She saw one with a colorful rainbow over the blue sky and on top of the green flowery meadow. She saw one with a mother duck leading her baby ducklings to the pond. Lavender let out some 'aws' when she sees paintings of adorable animals and some 'oohs' on perfectly painted landscapes.

Gazing around from top to bottom and from left to right, Lavender reaches to the end of the section. When she came to the bottom right side of the wall—one of the portraits have grabbed her attention.

"Huh?" She says to herself with curiosity. Lavender Rose walks closer to the painting that she is heavily focused on. Her eyes widened at the 14x22 gold-painted framed portrait and she stares at it without making a sudden movement or averting her eyes elsewhere.

"Lavender Rose," Sonic calls her name as he steps toward her. "Are you ready to go? Mommy is about to ring up." Standing beside her, he realizes that she is mesmerized at something. "What are you looking at? Did you see something you like?"

"Uh-huh," Lavender responds almost hypnotically. She points her finger at the portrait she's looking at. Sonic takes a look at it… and he is completely surprised at the painting.

Amy walks up to the check-out counter with her chosen baby clothes and two small stuffed animals, one teddy bear and one baby lamb. She places the items on the counter. The clerk behind it turns around from the behind-the-counter shelves and she makes eye contact with her. She is a white cat with pink irises and her hair is tied into downward pigtails. Her outfit is very preppy with her white collar shirt underneath her purple argyle sweater vest and a dark purple plaid skirt to match. She lets out a smile at the pregnant pink hedgehog.

"Hi, there," The cat says with a hint of optimism. "Is that everything?"

"Maybe," Amy responds while placing her hand on her expecting abdomen. "My husband and daughter are somewhere here still looking through some things. I'm waiting for them now."

"Okay," the cat then fixes her eyes on Amy's belly. Her smile turns to warmth, "You must be one lucky mother."

Amy chuckles softly, "I guess I am. I'm having twins this time, fraternal twins more specifically."

"Aw, congratulations to you," The cat comments. "I'm Missy, by the way." Missy the Cat holds her hand out to Amy.

Amy did the same and the two meticulously shake hands. "I'm Amy Rose." They let go.

"So what makes you buy some baby stuff here at a thrift store?" Missy starts the conversation as they wait. She looks through some of the tiny clothes on the counter.

"Well, I really like to come here since I have a small passion for used items. I know some of the choices I picked out seem old, but sewing is one of my favorite hobbies and I figured that I can use it to make something new to these clothes for my twins."

Missy is intrigued, "That's really interesting. That way, you can make something more unique without spending a fortune."

"Exactly." The two giggle.

Amy then heard Sonic and Lavender coming towards her. She notices that Sonic is holding something in his hand while his other is holding onto Lavender's. "That's them," she informs Missy. Missy gazes at the blue and purple hedgehogs.

"Your husband is Sonic the Hedgehog? Also known as the Hero of Mobius?" Missy is surprised to learn about the fact that Amy is married to a well-known celebrity—sort of a celebrity.

"That's right!"

"You really are lucky."

Sonic and Lavender made it to the counter. "We're here, Ames."

Amy introduces the three all together. "Missy, you may have heard of Sonic. This is my little daughter, Lavender Rose Sparkle."

Sonic and Missy briefly greet each other. Then, she greets herself to Lavender Rose with a cutesy voice. "Hello, there. I'm Missy, it's nice to meet you."

Lavender tentatively hides her face onto Sonic's leg. He chuckles while putting his hand on top of her head. "She's a little shy."

"Don't worry, I used to be shy, too," Missy tells them while keeping a warm smile on her face. "It takes a while to overcome it."

Amy makes eye contact with Sonic. "So Sonic, did you and Lavender see something you like?"

Feeling nervous, Sonic responds, "Well, Lavender did. And I really don't know about whether or not we should get—this." He's referring to the portrait that Lavender was so drawn into.

"Think you can show it to us?" Missy asks. Sonic nods.

He shows the painting to Amy and Missy—and Amy is entirely surprised. "Oh my…"

The portrait depicts a little ivory hedgehog girl staring straight through at them and she looks extremely sad. She is wearing a little white dress and she's standing barefooted on the field with dark rainy clouds in the sky. In her arms, she's holding a doll that looked just like her except its eyes are entirely black with no irises. And—the girl's ebony eyes are entirely beady with her tears pouring heavily in distress.

After gazing at the portrait, Amy looks at her daughter. "Lavender, why on earth would you want this?"

Lavender says, "I—I just do. I really like it and I think it would look okay on my bedroom wall. And she looks a little like me but with different color fur." What she said was right. They could see a small hint of resemblance between the two.

Sonic cautions her, "Are you sure? Because this looks—really sad. Even for us."

Lavender refuses to listen to her parents. "Pwease? Can I get it?" She begs her parents with her green irises turning beady. Sonic and Amy glance at each other. Due to her pleading, they were unable to resist.

"If she really wants it, then I guess it's okay." Amy is still reluctant. Sonic agrees even though he's as reluctant as she is.

Sonic places the painting on the counter to ring up. "How much is the portrait, Missy?"

Missy has been glaring at the portrait and by the look of her facial expression, it seemed she knows about the painting. "I don't know if you guys would want that." She has the urge to tell them the history of the painting, but she didn't have the audacity to do so. She worries about the fear they, especially Lavender since she is a small child, would suffer. She looks down at Lavender to warn her. However, Missy is being interfered with her pleading eyes and just like Sonic and Amy, she cannot deny it.

Missy lets out a warming smile, trying to hide her worrisome. "But I guess I'll allow you." Lavender is pleased to hear this.

Missy informs them, "The portrait is a priceless antique and it costs about 1000 rings. Fortunately, since my boss is a huge fan of you," She's referring to Sonic, "He decides that everything you and your family purchase here is complimentary. No charge." She smiles at them again.

Sonic and Amy are happy to hear about this. Missy places all of the baby stuff in a beige paper bag with handles and the portrait in a separate bigger one. She hands them to the hedgehog family. "There you go."

"Thank you so much," Sonic gleefully thanks her while taking the bags off the counter.

"You're welcome, and once again, congrats on your upcoming twins."

"Thank you," Amy responds to Missy. When the family heads off, Missy waves goodbye to Lavender Rose. She returns the wave but still with tentativeness.

She watches them leave the thrift store. By the time they depart, Missy's boss appears to the counter where she is standing. He—a bloated grey wolf in a professional attire—notices Sonic the Hedgehog through the window display. He seems eager about the fact that his idol was in the store.

"Was that who I think it was?" He asks Missy.

"Yes, Dan. He was here with his wife and kid to buy some things. And just like you told me, everything he buys here are free for him."

"Good," Dan remarks, "I hate to take his money."

"I know." Unaware to Dan, Missy is distracted about the painting she gave to them. She couldn't resist the worrisome in herself. She fears that someday in the future—they have to know about the dark side of that Crying Girl portrait.

By the time they set it up somewhere on the wall—a haunting surprise would be in store for the hedgehog family.


	3. The Spirit

The Spirit

6:15 pm:

At home, Sonic is in Lavender Rose's bedroom holding up the portrait somewhere on the wall. While at it, Lavender is sitting on her bed, watching her daddy.

"Where do you want to put this?" Sonic asks her. He held it up on the empty space in between her doorway and her dresser with her TV on top. "Do you want it right here?"

"No," Lavender tells him.

Sonic descends the frame. "Here?"

"Nuh uh," Lavender shook her head.

When the frame lowers even more, Sonic carefully let it stand on the wooden floor while holding onto the top for balance. He looks at her, "Do you just want it on the floor and let it lean against the wall?"

Lavender cocks her head for a moment to look at the view before setting it straight back up. "Yeah."

Sonic meticulously leaves it like she says. Despite it doesn't have some kind of stand on the back of the frame, the portrait is able to stay perfectly still without tipping or falling. He became potentially flummoxed about this mysterious piece albeit he decides to shrug it off, thinking that the frame is made to be sturdy. Sonic takes a step back to where Lavender Rose is to take a glimpse at the view in her perspective.

"Looks okay, don't you think?" He asks her.

"Uh huh," Lavender remarks.

_At least I don't have to nail the wall, _

Sonic thought to himself. He persistently stares at the girl in the painting with uncertainty. The longer he stares at it, the sense of melancholic emotion he's beginning to feel inside.

_Still, looking at this is so depressing. I still wonder why people would want this, even my own little girl._

When he's done, he makes eye contact with his daughter, being able to shake the lachrymose away.

Sonic notices that Lavender is still staring at it; it's been like this ever since the trip to the thrift store. She must've really liked the antique artwork. Her large eyes of innocence are focused on it.

"Lavender?" Sonic says her name. No response. "Lavender?" He says again. After no response for the second time, he briefly waves his hand in front of her face to wake her from her trance. It worked.

"What, daddy?" Lavender averts her eyes to him.

"Just want to make sure you're okay, baby girl."

"Okay from what?" She seems confused. Sonic doesn't know what she's talking about. He's about to tell her that she got into some kind of a trance while she was looking at the painting. However, he didn't have the courage to do so.

"Never mind," He finally tells her.

The father and daughter can hear Amy Rose calling from the kitchen. Sonic held his arms up to Lavender. He smiles at her, "Come on, it's time for dinner."

Lavender raises her arms up to allow Sonic to pick her up and take her downstairs for dinnertime. The two exit the girl's pink and purple princess-themed bedroom, leaving her door ajar. Footsteps can be heard from the staircase until they fade away. Silence is filled in the entire room.

Inside the empty and quiet bedroom—something bizarre is about to happen to the girl on the portrait.

The girl's eyes are languidly altering; her orbs are turning from beady and teary ebony—to completely bright white.

~~X~~

10:00 pm:

While Sonic is preparing himself for bed in the other bedroom, Amy is sitting on the edge of Lavender's bed while Lavender is buried underneath her blankets. She pulls the covers up to her tiny mouth. Amy has her hand stroking through her soft light purple quills.

"Mommy, can I have some more water?" Lavender sits up for a second.

Amy hands her a child's baby pink water bottle from the nightstand; the bottle has a print of the Mane 6 and Spike the baby dragon from My Little Pony. "Okay, but don't drink too much. You don't want to wet yourself in your sleep."

Lavender takes her bottle into her tiny hands and takes a sip of water through the nozzle. After taking two gulps, she hands it back to Amy before lying back down. The mother hedgehog places the bottle back onto her nightstand. She looks at her daughter.

"You have a good sleep now, baby girl," Amy softly speaks to her. "You have to wake up early tomorrow for school."

"But mommy," Lavender protests, "I don't want to go to school. I don't like it there."

Sonic and Amy didn't know about this, but during her school days, Lavender Rose has a dispute with one of her classmates named Kelly Maple Khan the Chipmunk. Kelly Maple teases and picks on her every so often, no matter how many times their teacher puts her into timeout. Her discipline wouldn't stop her from picking on the poor innocent purple hedgehog.

Amy is still unaware about this because Lavender is still too afraid to mention Kelly Maple in front of her. "Honey, you have to. And also, don't you want to be with your friends? You have been playing with Ivy and Rayna all the time, don't you? They would be sad if you don't show up to school."

Lavender remembers every good moment she had with the daughters of Sonic and Amy's friends. She nods her little head.

Amy smiles at her, "Alright, go to sleep now. Goodnight, Lavender Rose." She gives her a kiss on the forehead before getting off the bed. Lavender watches her stroll towards her doorway. Amy has her hand on the doorknob and her other on the light switch. She briefly looks at the painting leaning against the wall right next to the doorway and she gets distracted by the look of it.

"What is it, mommy?" Lavender asks her.

Amy rids herself from the distraction. "Nothing," She tells her. "Goodnight." She turns off the light and then quietly closes the door.

Lavender Rose lies down on her side while cuddling her Twilight Sparkle plushie close to her. She stares at the dark for only a few minutes. All she can think about is the Crying Girl on the painting. Using her imagination, she wonders if she could become real someday; not only to know about why she is sad, but to also become her new friend. After minutes passed by, Lavender closes her eyes and she sleeps peacefully.

By the time it reaches after midnight, another bizarre happening is occurring straight from the portrait. First, the sound of sniffling is heard.

_Sniff, sniff… Sniff, sniff…_

Then, the girl's eyes have glowed to bright white, like before.

And now…

Some kind of heavy white mist is coming out of the painting. The mist flows into the air and transfer itself to sleeping Lavender. Once it piles above her head—the strange white cloud then enters into her body before disappearing completely.

~~X~~

7:00 am:

The sun light gleams through the window pane and aims straight at Lavender. Feeling the warmth from the sun, Lavender has woken up. She sits up on her bed, rubbing the sleep off her eyes with the back of her hands and lastly, she lets out a yawn.

_Good morning, Lavender Rose. _An unfamiliar voice whispers to her. It sounded like a young girl her age.

Lavender perks her head up when she heard the voice. "Huh?" She looks around for a bit. "Who said that?"

_Over here, _She said. _Right next to you._

The young purple hedgehog looks to her right, like she said. There is no one—no one at all. But…

"Oh, hello there." Lavender greets herself. She gets on her fours on top of her blankets, showing off her white jammies with pink hearts all over. She continues to look through her right. She cocks her head, "Where do you come from by the way? And how do you know my name?"

She begins to have a quick conversation with the disembodied voice. Her tone is loud enough for her parents to hear from the other side of the closed door.

There is a pause. Lavender's face suddenly turns sympathetic. "You look a little sad. Are you okay?"

The young female whispering voice sounded pretty eerie throughout the entire talk, but it didn't seem to scare Lavender one bit.

"Aw, don't worry." She held her hand up, looking as if she's setting her palm on top of something. Almost shoulder length. "You don't have to feel lonely now. I can be friends with you."

There is a second long pause.

_Thank you, _The voice tells her with a sniffle.

A knock can be heard from the door. "Lavender?" It's Sonic calling for her. He opens the door and then steps in. He perceives his daughter kneeling on her bed, staring at her right side. "Lavender, come downstairs for breakfast and then get ready for school."

Lavender Rose hops off her bed. She walks up to Sonic. "Good morning, daddy."

Sonic crouches down to her height. "Baby girl?" He gently grasps her cheeks and with curiosity, he asks, "Who were you talking to?"

Lavender looks at the direction she was looking at before. She smiles at something. Then, she looks back at him. "Daddy, I just made a new friend."

The blue hedgehog is perplexed again. "Who? And where?"

Lavender Rose points to the same direction. "She's right there." Sonic follows where her finger is pointing at.

He sees nothing at all. He felt some chills in his spine.

"Daddy, this is my friend—Kimmerie."


	4. The Victim

The Victim

7:35 am:

Breakfast is done and Lavender ran back to her room to change into her school clothes and to pack some things for the day. While at it, Amy is at the counter, setting up Lavender's lunch: cucumber sandwiches, a pack of peanut butter crackers and two fruit juice boxes.

While cutting the crusts off the sandwich, Amy is talking to Sonic standing beside her. "Sonic, I'm sure that this is just a phase she's going through. It's not uncommon for children her age to go through this whole imaginary-friend thing. I've seen kids like this before."

She discards the crusts into the garbage can. Sonic responds, "I still don't know about this, baby." Amy then tears off a strip of plastic wrap from its box. She places the sandwiches on top to wrap them up.

Sonic continues, "Isn't it a strange coincidence that Lavender Rose quickly made one up right after we got her that painting? Something is telling me about something."

The cucumber sandwiches are done and wrapped; Amy takes her lunches all together, "Telling you what?" She resumes the conversation while at the same time packs them for Lavender.

Sonic sighs. He has a sense of worry going on about their daughter, "I really don't know."

Amy organizes the lunches into Lavender's lunch bag with an image of the three characters from _Frozen,_ Elsa and Anna standing back to back with Olaf the Snowman in front and middle. She closes the bag and set it aside. She turns to make full contact with Sonic.

"Sonikku," She tells him, "There's nothing to worry about. From what I've read in children psychology during parenting school, I think it's best if we play along and just let her have fun with her creativity."

Sonic has nothing to respond to this, "Are you sure?"

Amy smiles at him, "Positive. And I doubt it's that serious."

He thought about this. "True," he nods. "I just hope her imagination won't turn into a serious issue. I wouldn't want our little girl to suffer any consequences." Soon, his worry fades away. He then lets out a warming smile. Amy notices this and she gives him a little kiss on the lips. Sonic returns the kiss.

Lavender Rose scurries down the stairs and runs into the kitchen towards her parents. She has her school uniform on and her pink backpack strapped over her shoulders. She's wearing a white frilly collar shirt with a navy blue sweater vest, a navy blue plaid skirt, white socks with laces, and black Mary Janes. For a touch, she even put on her matching navy blue headband. She makes eye contact with her parents.

They couldn't help but to smile at her appearance. She looks so adorable to them. "Mommy, is my lunch ready?" Lavender asks Amy.

Amy takes her lunch bag from the counter and hands it to her. "There you go, it's your favorite health food." Lavender opens her bag to take a quick peak. She's happy enough to see her favorite sandwich, crackers and juice. Afterwards, she closes it.

"Thank you, mommy," Lavender changes the subject. She makes eye contact with both parents, "Mommy? Daddy? Is it okay if Kimmerie comes to school with me?"

Sonic and Amy switch glances. Amy mouths something to him before the two look back at her. Sonic answers, "Uh, sure Lavender. Just make sure that Kimberly doesn't get into trouble with the other kids."

"It's Kimmerie," Lavender corrects him, much to his embarrassment. "And don't worry, I can watch her. I hope Rayna and Ivy would like her."

"And Ashton, Jace and Zander?" Amy mentions the sons of her and Sonic's friends, whom Lavender gets along as well.

She nods. "Yup, them too."

They hear the school bus parking up front of their house.

"The bus is here!" Lavender sang to them. Amy crouches down to her height to give her a big hug and a kiss.

"You be good now, okay?" Amy says to her.

Lavender waves and says bye to her mommy. She looks to her side, "Come on, Kimmerie! Let's go!" Then, she held something—possibly Kimmerie's hand—waist down in the air and runs to the front door. The parents notices her action; the way she has her invisible friend's hand seem adorable, but a tad creepy at the same time. They can hear her giggling.

Sonic walks to the front door to make sure Lavender leaves the house safely. "I'll be right back." He informs Amy.

Sonic makes it to the front doorway. He opens the door for Lavender. Before she leaves, Lavender gives a goodbye hug to her daddy. Sonic returns the hug and he added a kiss on her cheek. "You and Kimmerie have fun in school." He's reluctant to mention Kimmerie's name.

"Okay! Bye!" Lavender leaves and runs into the school bus—while still holding an invisible hand in the air.

~~X~~

10:15 am:

During recess time, kids are running around the schoolyard, playing with their peers and on the playground equipment. All of the kids are in their uniforms; girls in their navy blue plaid skirts and boys in their solid navy blue pants. Both sexes are in their white collar shirts and wearing either sweater vests or sweaters in navy blue.

Lavender Rose is sitting on the bench with Kimmerie—to the other kids, it's by herself—and she's having a little conversation with her. As the kids pass by, they get a sense of awkwardness because it seems that Lavender is talking to herself. But she could care less about that.

_So this is where you go to every day? _Kimmerie asks Lavender. _I've never seen children like them before. Are they always this—playful and happy?_

"Yeah," Lavender responds, "But not always this happy. Sometimes, you see them cry when they get hurt or lost something or anything like that. How come you never go to school? Is it because you're different?"

_No, it's not that, _Kimmerie answers in what sounded like a melancholic tone. _I wanna tell you why, but I don't think I can._

"Why?" Lavender asks again.

_I—I just can't. It'll make me feel… more sad._ Kimmerie sniffs. Lavender understood what she meant by that. She scoots a little to the side and she places her arm over in an arch. In her perspective, she's putting her arm over Kimmerie's shoulders for a comforting hug—in reality, she's hugging the air.

From a few feet away, two of Lavender's friends, Ivory Snowflake the Cat—who goes by Ivy for short—and Rayna Maria the Hedgebat, are both watching her in perplexity. The two are in the same school attire as Lavender.

"Ivy, what do you think Lavender is doing?" Rayna asks.

"I don't know," Ivy responds with naivety. "It's like she's talking to herself." They continued to look at her for several more seconds.

Ivy adds, "She's been like this ever since this morning when school started."

Rayna answers, "I know."

Back at the bench, Lavender notices Ivy and Rayna standing there, talking to each other, and she's unaware that they're talking about her. She looks to her invisible friend and holds her hand.

"I want you to meet my two best friends," Lavender tells her. She stands up, but she felt herself being pulled back down.

_I don't know about this, Lavender, _Kimmerie tells her. _I don't really like being with others, but you._

Lavender stands back up, still holding her invisible hand, "Don't worry, they're really nice. Although, Rayna can be a brat, but we're still friends." She then takes Kimmerie from the bench and head towards them. Kids see her as if she's—abnormal.

By the time she gets to them, Lavender says hi to her friends and Rayna and Ivy responds with a weak hello.

"Rayna, Ivy," Lavender introduces them to Kimmerie, "This is my new friend, Kimmerie."

They see nothing. They're entirely confused. Ivy, the naïve one (due to her father's personality traits), walks down to where Lavender says Kimmerie is standing. She crouches down and cocks her head to look underneath Lavender's arm. She stood up.

"Where is she?" Ivy asks.

"She's right here," Lavender claims, pointing to her side in between her and Ivy.

"But I don't see her," Rayna says with her eyes squinting a bit.

"Me neither," Ivy remarks.

Lavender tells them, "What do you mean? My mommy and daddy said they could see her." She's oblivious to know that Sonic and Amy were just saying that to allow her to be creative with herself.

_Lavender, I don't think I like them at all, _Kimmerie whispers to her. Lavender's the only one who could hear and see her whilst her two—real—friends cannot. _They just said they cannot see me._

"That's because they don't know you that much," Lavender whispers to her back, "They have to know you more if you want them to see you."

"Lavender?" Ivy asks, "When did you meet Kimberly?" Lavender could sense Kimmerie feeling aggravated about getting her name mispronounced.

Defending her, she nearly raises her voice, "It's Kimmerie. She doesn't like it when she gets her name mixed up. It's Kimmerie, with an 'M,' not 'B.'

"Okay," The white kitten back off a bit.

"And," Lavender alleviates her tone to calm, "I just met her this morning. Right in my bedroom."

"Really?" Rayna wonders, "How did she—"

The purple hedgehog cuts her off, "She just appeared right next to me when I woke up. She was sad when I met her and I thought I could be with her to make her feel better."

Ivy asks, "What was she sad about?"

_Please don't tell them why…_ Kimmerie whispers to Lavender. _I don't want them to know, I can't let them know. _She nods to her and whispers an okay to her. She looks back at the two.

"She doesn't want me to tell you because it's too personal." Lavender informs them with a near-impolite tone.

Ivy and Rayna are feeling annoyed about their friend being friends with someone who they can't even see or hear. Before they can do anything else—a tension is about to happen.

Lavender Rose felt herself being pushed down from behind; she stumbles to the front and nearly fell to the concrete ground. However, both Rayna and Ivy caught her before she gets hurt, despite the nuisance they just had with her.

"Aw, looks who talking to herself," A girl is taunting behind her back. The three girls look to see who it was.

It's Kelly Maple Khan, the one whom Lavender—and her friends—have been having disputes with. Kelly Maple is a light brown chipmunk with her mother's eyes and she appears to be taller than Lavender—just about an inch.

Lavender got up from the kitten and hedgebat's arms and stood straight up, trying to hide her fear. Kelly Maple persists the taunting, "Why were you doing that? Is it because you turned into some kind of freak now?"

She couldn't retaliate. Rayna steps up towards Kelly, defending her friend. "Leave her alone, Kelly!" The little hedgebat has her father's tough traits. "She's just—"

Kelly cuts her off and spat in her face, "Just what? A little weirdo who doesn't have proper friends?" She makes eye contact with Lavender, "You know that they and everyone else only like you because your father happens to be a famous hero."

Rayna persists, "That's not true! It's more than that!"

It's Ivy's turn, "You're just jealous because everyone likes her for being the best in class!"

"I am not!" Kelly Maple retaliates. "How can I be jealous of someone who has an invisible friend? Speaking of which," She looks side to side, "where is she, Lavender?"

Lavender exclaims, "That's none of your business!"

"It is so my business!" Kelly exclaims back, "I'd like to meet her!" She has her arms over in the air, grabbing an imaginary peer. "Is she right here?"

Lavender perceives Kelly Maple's grasp; her eyes suddenly widens in shock when she realized that she's roughly holding onto Kimmerie. Kimmerie is struggling in her arms. Lavender yells out, "No! Don't touch her! She gets hurt real easily!"

"Oh, is that so?" Kelly persists the taunting, not believing that she really is holding onto Kimmerie. "I bet she also don't like it when I pull her hair. Oh wait, I don't think she has any—because she's not even real!" She laughs.

Disdain is shown on Lavender's façade. She has the impulse to get up to Kelly and push her away from Kimmerie.

_Lavender…_ Kimmerie orders her, _Get closer to her… Now…_

Lavender wanted to defy. _Just do it…_

In reluctance, she bolts herself towards Kelly. At the exact moment—Kelly Maple yells out as she is seen falling towards to the ground, and it seems that she got hit somewhere in the face. Once she's on the ground, she has both of her hands covering her face, possibly hiding her own pain.

"Ow…" Kelly whines.

Lavender stood beside her; she's flummoxed about what just happened. Kids, including Ivy and Rayna, began to surround her and Kelly Maple. They became shocked to see Kelly on the ground wincing, but many of them seem happy to witness it since the chipmunk is the bully and naught of the school.

Ivy exclaims, "Lavender!" She and Rayna step closer to her, "What did you do?!"

She turns around to face them, "I didn't even do it!" Lavender protests.

"We just saw it! You hit her in the face!" Rayna shouts.

"But I—I didn't even touch her!"

When her pain eases away, Kelly gets up from the ground and she angrily looks at Lavender. Her face is fully shown to her. "You little…!" She growls at her, falsely accusing her for sending a blow to her face.

Then—the battle ensues between the purple hedgehog and the light brown chipmunk. The incoherent sounds of kids exclaiming spreads throughout the schoolyard.

Inside the classroom, the student's teacher is staring through the large window, making sure her class is playing safe. When she hears screaming and shouting and her pupils surrounding in the back, she became concern. Immediately, the silver-furred fox runs out of the building and out towards the kids.

She urges them to disperse on her way to the group. They all did. The students left a path for the teacher to make her way to whoever is causing this entire fracas. She finds out who it is—and fury rises in her.

The teacher breaks up the fight between Lavender Rose and Kelly Maple. She looks at them with sternness. She even has her hands up, each in front of the two girls, to avert them from getting near one another.

"What is going on?!" She yells at them. The rest of the classmates are behind her, watching the whole thing.

Kelly Maple—now hurt from the physical quarrel—blames everything on Lavender. "Mrs. Diamond! She's the one who started this! She hit me right here!" She points at her own face.

Mrs. Diamond takes a quick look on her cheek. Not many marks are shown. Normally, she wouldn't believe in someone she disciplines most of the time. This time, she does. After the examination, Mrs. Diamond makes eye contact with Lavender Rose—who is standing there with timidity. It's hard to believe that an innocent girl, like her, has started this fracas.

"Lavender Rose! How could you do this?!" Mrs. Diamond, for the first time since the beginning of the school year, is furious at Lavender—who's really her star pupil.

"But, Mrs. Diamond!" Lavender protests with timidity, "I didn't even do it!" She points to the air next to her. "She made me do it!"

Mrs. Diamonds follows to where she's pointing at. Nothing but the air. "What do you mean?" She has no idea what she's talking about.

"Her! Kimmerie did it! Not me!"

~~X~~

3:20 pm:

Amy Rose is at home, sitting on the couch and doing some sewing on the baby clothes she got from the thrift store. She just finished adding a white appliqué of a ducky on the green footy onesie. Now, she's working on the yellow one; after sewing in a white appliqué of a bunny on its front, Amy is sewing up a little tear that is shown on the waist side. When she's done, she takes a pair of scissors and snipped the thread off before putting the needle back into its pin cushion. Amy lifts up the two clothes she just worked on to take a glimpse of them.

"Perfect," she whispers. "Cobalt Jay Rush is going to like the green one." So far, she and Sonic agreed on the name of the male twin. Unfortunately, they haven't yet decided on the name for the female twin.

She hears her smartphone ringing. Putting down the clothes on the side of the couch, Amy carefully reaches for it from the end table while planting her hand on her belly. She picks up.

"Hello?... Oh, hi, Mrs. Diamond…" The conversation on the phone suddenly turns serious. Amy's eyes widen when she heard the news about her daughter. "She did what?... Really?..." She would've yell, but she cannot. Mrs. Diamond tells her through the phone about what Lavender Rose has done during recess.

Amy sighs in disbelief. "Okay, I will talk to her as soon as she comes home… Thank you for letting me know, Mrs. Diamond." The conversation ended and then she hangs up her phone.

The front door opens and in comes Sonic and Lavender. Sonic has her backpack over his shoulder; he removes it and then hands it back to his little lady. Amy notices them walking in. Meticulously, she gets up from the couch and walks up to her husband.

"Sonic, we need to talk." Amy begins. Lavender hears about this and she knew right away what she meant. She's about to take her things and run up to her room. Amy stops her. She tries to sound stern albeit her expecting belly is interfering with her. "Lavender Rose Sparkle, you stay here. This is important."

Lavender complies. Sonic wonders, "What is it, Ames?"

Amy informs with concern, "Sonic, Lavender's teacher just called me. She said she got into a fight with someone in school. She just told me that Kelly Maple Khan had to stay in the nurse's office all day because of her."

"But, mommy—" Lavender gets cut off after her attempted response.

"No buts, Lavender."

Sonic remarks to this, "Oh yeah, she just told me on our way home from school. I couldn't believe that for the first time, she just beat up the daughter of my ex-girlfriend—which is something that I kind of don't mind."

Amy sighs in exasperation, "Sonic, this is serious! She hit Kelly Maple in the face and then beat her to the ground! Do you even know how serious this could be? I bet Sally Acorn is furious about this as well."

_Shit… Sally might kick our ass for having our daughter attacking hers. _Sonic thought.

He finally came to his senses about the consequences. He looks at Lavender, "You're mother's right, Lavender. You could've sent her to the hospital."

Trying to protest, Lavender exclaims, "But daddy, I didn't even do it! Kimmerie really did it!"

"Now, Lavender," Sonic remarks, "Let's not point fingers at—your friend. Blaming others for what they have not done won't get you out of this."

Amy cuts in and informs her, "Mrs. Diamond even told me that the entire class saw the whole thing and they said it was you. If you really have trouble getting along with somebody else, then at least try to work it out more rationally. Physical violence won't solve anything."

Again, Lavender wanted to speak up, but her timidity is interfering with her. She really hates getting into trouble. Her eyes are about to turn teary. Sonic and Amy perceives the waterworks.

Amy crouches down to her height. She plants her hands on the girl's cheeks. "You're not punished just yet, but this is a warning. Another outburst like this, then you're in trouble. Do you understand me, Lavender?"

Lavender sniffs and her only answer is a weak nod. Amy stood back up, "Now go back to your room and try to take a nap. You've had a long day."

And so she did. Taking her backpack and lunch bag with her, Lavender Rose leaves the living room and heads up the stairs to her bedroom. Sonic and Amy could hear Lavender closing the door.

Sonic looks at Amy, "Are you really going to let her out that easily?"

She shrugs her shoulders, "Maybe, I just hate seeing her like this. You know how vulnerable she is."

"She's only five, Ames."

"Still. And do you know what else her teacher said?"

"What?"

Amy sighs for the last time, "She mentioned something about her imaginary friend, Kimmerie. And she said her bonding with her is already becoming disruptive in class."

In Lavender's room, Lavender is laying front down on her bed, holding her pillow to her face and sniffling onto it. Her trailing tears are staining the frilly pink case.

As she sobs for a couple of minutes, Lavender felt a hand stroking through her quills. She picks up her head and gazes at her side. She sees Kimmerie kneeling against the bed with her arm lying across the edge and her chin resting behind it. Her eyes are showing Lavender contriteness.

_I'm really sorry, Lavender Rose. _Kimmerie tells her.

Lavender sits up sideways, "It's not your fault, Kimmerie. You were only protecting me from Kelly Maple." She sniffs and wipes the tears off her eyes with the back of her hands. "But you did get me into trouble; you were the one to beat her and now everyone thinks that I did it."

More guilt is in Kimmerie's eyes. _Like I said, no one can see me but you. And—I never really meant to do that to you. I don't know what came to me._

Lavender Rose gets up from her bed to put away her backpack. She grasps onto the handle and walks to her closet. She has her hand onto the closet's handle and before she slides it open, she turns around to look at Kimmerie.

"I forgive you and I can't stay mad at you. And besides, this is really the first time we've met. But—" Lavender pauses before resuming.

"If you really want to stay out of the painting, then you have to be good to everyone else." She turns back to the closet and she slides its door open.

Lavender puts her backpack inside right next to the painting she put in there this morning as she was changing into her school uniform. Underneath the light inside the dark closet…

The girl in the portrait is missing.


	5. The Uninvited

The Uninvited

Monday 5:00 pm:

In Lavender's room, Lavender Rose is sitting on the floor while brushing the mane and tail of her Twilight Sparkle plushie. As she strokes the faux dark violet hair with a tiny brush, she begins to have a small conversation with Kimmerie sitting beside her. She, too, has a doll with her, at least in Lavender's perception; it's a smaller version of herself with large black hollow eyes and Kimmerie is stroking through its quills with her fingers.

"Kimmerie," Lavender starts off, "Can I ask you something?"

_What? _Kimmerie responds.

"Where did you get that dolly?" Kimmerie went silent for only a second.

Lavender tells her, "You can tell me, it would be a secret between us. Like I told you before that I like a boy named Ryder Mayhem, even though my mommy and daddy don't like his mommy and daddy." She's referring to Scourge and Rosy, the couple that both Sonic and Amy have a dispute with.

After Kimmerie's silence, she finally spoke, _My mommy actually made it for me—before she was gone._

Lavender is curious. "What do you mean gone?"

_She's not around anymore, just like my daddy. _Kimmerie pauses, possibly trying to hold back her sadness, _She was really sick; I remember when I saw her sleeping in her bed and she looked really bad. She was all coughy and her body is all shivery and very white. Almost whiter than my fur._

_But then, _Kimmerie pauses again, _My nanny told me that mommy is too sick to take care of me. And before I know it—nanny told me that mommy is now gone. Gone forever._

Lavender shows some sympathy for Kimmerie. She finally understood of what she meant by 'gone.' "What about your daddy?"

Kimmerie continues, _I don't know who my daddy is. Mommy said he was gone before I came out of her. And after when mommy is gone, my nanny is the only one who took care of me. _She sniffs when she begins to think about her mother. _I loved my mommy a lot and I really missed her. And the only way I have from her is this dolly she made for me. _Kimmerie shows Lavender her doll.

Lavender studies Kimmerie's doll. She notices its eeriness in it eyes and she thought that the doll must've lost both of its eyes due to being worn out or something. The doll looked like a little ghost to her, but eerie or not, nothing is effecting her. Lavender gazes back at Kimmerie. "Your mommy did a great job making that for you. What's the dolly's name by the way?"

_I change her name most of the time, _Kimmerie strokes through her doll's hair, _because she wanted do. First, her name was Jessie. Then, Lucy. And now—her name is Cherry Blossom._

"Cherry Blossom?" Lavender inquisitively asks, "You mean like those pretty pink and white flowers that grow on trees during springtime?"

Kimmerie shrugs, _If that's what they are, then yes._

Lavender repeats the names she mentioned. "I kind of liked Jessie and Lucy. But Cherry Blossom is more suitable since she's pretty like a flower." She looks at the doll again.

Kimmerie did the same as well, _I think she thinks so, too. _Then, she and Lavender share giggles with each other.

A knock is then heard on Lavender's door, interrupting their fun time together. "Come in!" Lavender cheerily calls out.

Amy opens the door and steps inside. She sees Lavender—in her perspective—sitting alone on the floor with her Twilight Sparkle plushie in her arms. "Lavender Rose," she warmly sang to her, "What are you doing?"

"Playing dolls with Kimmerie. She has a doll of her own, too."

Amy looks at where she is sitting. She plays along, "I can already see you're sharing with her. That's nice."

Lavender smiles, "I know."

The mother hedgehog walks closer to her daughter until she stood next to her. "Lavender, honey. I have some news for you."

"What is it, mommy?"

Amy holds out a colorful envelope with Lavender's name written on the back and a balloon sticker is stuck to its flap. She shows it to her and Lavender focuses on the envelope. "What's that?"

The mother chuckles softly, "Baby girl, looks like you have some mail."

Lavender gasps happily. "Really?"

"Really," Amy gives her the envelope.

When Lavender grasps it, she opens it by removing the balloon sticker and lifting up the flap. She takes the card out with an image of colorful balloons on its cover. Once she opens it, she stares at the writing inside the card. Lavender showed some slight confusion; she looks back to her mommy and hands back the card to her.

"What does it say, mommy?" Lavender asks. Amy takes the card and then reads it out loud to her.

"It says, _'This Saturday is a very special day, for a certain little boy; Ashton Gideon the Fox is turning five, won't that be a joy? Make sure you come to his birthday party, there will be cake and so much fun; you may bring him some presents, just enough to make him happy as a sun.'_" After reading the poem inside the card, Amy tells her, "Lavender, you just got invited to Ashton's birthday party this Saturday. Won't that be great?"

"Birthday party?"

"Yeah, the rest of your friends may be there, too. That way, not only you get to celebrate Ashton turning five, you all get to play with each other during the party."

Lavender looks at her side, where she sees Kimmerie still sitting next to her. After a second, she glances at Amy. "Do you think I can bring Kimmerie over?"

"Huh?"

"Kimmerie doesn't want to be left all alone when we go to the party and I don't want to leave her. Can I, mommy?"

Amy thought about the idea, "Well, I don't know, Lavender. I don't know if—"

"Please, mommy?" Lavender begs with her pleasing eyes again. "If Kimmerie cannot come, then I won't go either."

"But Ashton would be very upset if you skip the party." Amy became persuasive to her. Lavender responds by glaring her with refusal written all over her face. Already giving up, Amy sighs, "Alright, she can come."

Lavender smiles a bigger smile. Amy informs her, "But remember what I've told you before: no roughhousing with any of your friends or else you—and Kimmerie—would be in big trouble." She cannot believe the fact that she's sending an ultimatum to Lavender's imaginary friend as well, much to her embarrassment.

"It's a deal!" Lavender responds. She looks at her side, "Do you hear that, Kimmerie? You're going to a birthday party with me!" Then, she hugs Kimmerie tightly. Amy sees her hugging the air and she tries to let out a smile.

"Okay, baby girl. I'm going downstairs and RSVP to this invitation." Amy turns to the door. Before she walks out of Lavender's room, she notices something is missing.

Right next to the doorway, she finally notices that the portrait Sonic left for her is not in that space anymore. She turns to face to Lavender once more. "Lavender?"

"Hm?"

"Where's that painting that daddy put for you?"

"Oh," Lavender answers with no hesitation. "I put it away."

"Put it away to where?"

"Inside my closet," the little purple hedgehog points to her closet.

Amy follows where her finger is pointing at when she walks to the closet. She was about to grasp onto its handle albeit Lavender stops her from opening it, "Mommy, no!"

"What is it?"

"I put the painting away for a reason."

"What reason is that?"

Lavender heard Kimmerie whispering something into her ear; her ear even twitches at the fainting voice. She nods considerately.

She tells Amy, "It's because the…" She trails off, trying to remember the little white lie Kimmerie just told her, "painting is scaring Kimmerie so much, she wanted me to hide it in the closet. That way, she doesn't have to see it or think about it."

Amy is suspicious. "Really?"

"Uh huh," Lavender nods her head adorably.

Amy finally pulls herself away from the closet and heads back towards the doorway. "Well, okay then. Have fun playing with—Kimmerie." Lastly, she exits the room.

By the time she's gone, Lavender looks at Kimmerie. _That was close._

"But mommy and daddy told me that lying is wrong. What if they find out that you actually came from the painting?"

Kimmerie is showing her a subtle little sneer, _Don't worry, Lavender Rose. They won't find out. Ever._

~~X~~

Saturday 12:00 pm:

The Hedgehog family is walking up the pathway of Tails and Cream's house. Lavender Rose is wearing a little yellow party dress with matching shoes and a headband. In her arms, she's carrying a box-like present wrapped in shiny silver wrapping paper and a blue ribbon tied around it.

"I hope Ashton likes this. I know how much he really likes airplanes." Lavender tells Sonic and Amy while they continue strolling to the front door. "What do you think, Kimmerie?" Kimmerie is presumably walking right next to her. She didn't answer.

By the time they got to the door, Sonic rings the doorbell. Waiting for them to answer, Sonic tells Amy in a hushed tone. Quiet enough, so their daughter wouldn't hear them.

"Amy, I honestly don't feel comfortable about Lavender bringing her imaginary friend over."

She responds in the same tone as his, "I know how you feel, but I didn't have a choice. She told me she doesn't want to come to the party unless she 'can bring her over,'" Amy air quoted the last part, "Lavender's already becoming sensitive about not having 'Kimmerie' along with her and she would be distraught if she's not with her."

Sonic sighs inaudibly, "Well, I just hope nothing can go wrong during Ashton's birthday."

"You and me both." Amy agrees. They both part themselves.

Tails answers the door the second the couple's small talk ended. "Hey, guys! You made it!"

Sonic smiles back and accepted the greeting, "Hey, bud."

His best friend opens the door wide enough for the family to enter. "Come right in." Sonic, Amy and Lavender enter the house before Tails closes the door behind them.

From where they are standing, they can hear chattering from a different room. Cream appears to the foyer and she strolls closer to them. "Hi."

Amy warmly returns the greeting while Cream (who now looks just like her mother, but younger-looking and having longer orange hair) steps closer to her for a hug. She could feel her expecting belly. They subsequently broke off and Cream gazes at her best friend.

"So how are the twins doing?" She asks Amy, "I can tell by that kick I just felt that they're healthy and happy."

Amy has her hand touching her stomach, "They sure are."

Tails decides to take Sonic to the other room, "Sonic, all the others are in the living room. We're just chilling before we begin Ashton's party."

"Cool," Sonic starts to the living room along with Tails by his side.

Once the two men are out of the foyer, Cream looks down to see Lavender. She crouches down at her height. "Hello, Lavender. How are you doing?"

"Hi, Auntie Cream," Lavender responds, "I'm okay. And I brought my friend, Kimmerie with me, too." She gestures to the air next to her, "She doesn't want to be left home all alone."

Cream plays along; she, too, knew about Lavender's imaginary friend and she was told by Amy to play along. She looks at the spot Lavender gestured at and she greets herself to Kimmerie. Cream then looks back at the purple hedgehog. "Lavender, all the kids are outside in the backyard playing."

"Okay," Lavender replies and she right away walks out of the foyer. Cream stood up.

Amy tells her, "Don't forget to say 'hello' to the other grown-ups."

"I will!" Lavender calls out.

Before they leave the foyer, Cream was about to ask Amy, "Amy—"

"I know," Amy quickly answers, "She doesn't want to come to the party without her, but at the same time, I don't want her to miss the birthday party."

Cream mouths an 'oh' and then understandingly nods her head. They head to the living room.

After greeting everyone in the house—Silver, Blaze, Shadow, Rouge, Knuckles and Tikal—Cream slides open the back door that leads to the yard. Lavender quickly strolls out.

"Put the present on the table outside where the rest are," Cream informs her before closing the door (its window are clear enough for the adults to watch their kids at the same time during their get-together).

Like she was told, Lavender places Ashton's gift on the table where the other colorfully wrapped presents are sitting, waiting to be opened by the birthday boy. Aside with the gifts, there are balloons and decorations all in red and blue—presumably Ashton's favorite colors—tied around the table. With the yard filled with uproarious laughter from the other children, Lavender turns around to see where they are.

She notices all her friends are inside the bounce house; it's a Spiderman theme and it's rocking from all that jumping around. Just a couple of feet away, their shoes are sitting on the grass. Holding Kimmerie's invisible hand, Lavender runs to the bounce house.

She stood in front of the house's entrance and she sees her friends inside. They all stopped jumping and they make eye contact with her. Then, they hopped off for a moment to say their hellos to Lavender.

"Hi, guys," Lavender greets them. She glances at Ashton, "Happy Birthday, Ashton."

"Thanks," Ashton smiles at her.

The kids could see Lavender's hand gripping the air below her waist—already implying that she brought in a guest.

"Uh, Lavender?" Ivy begins. "Is Kimmerie still with you?"

"Yup, she is," Lavender replies.

Ivy and Rayna already didn't like this; the two girls are apprehensive about the imaginary friend taking over their best friend's life. However, Ashton and fraternal twin brothers (because they both have different fur and eye color), Jason Onyx and Alexander Garnet—better known as Jace and Zander for short—are not too effected about Kimmerie. The three boys are aware about her, but they still didn't believe much about her.

"Lavender?" Jace, the red-furred mischievous and care-free twin echidna, asks with his head cocking with inquisitiveness. "Are you sure that Kimmerie is—" He gets cut off by his brother.

Zander, the orange-furred slightly smarter and more mature echidna twin, had his arm carefully jabbing Jace's. He shushes him, "Jace!" Zander whispers to his ear, "She's just an invisible friend, remember?"

"Never mind," Jace disregards the question he was about to ask Lavender.

Lavender makes eye contact with the birthday fox. "So, Ashton. I hope you don't mind if I have Kimmerie over."

"Yes! We mind!" Rayna impetuously shouts out to her. The kids look at her.

"Rayna," Ivy tells her, "She's talking to Ashton."

Rayna calms herself down. "Sorry." They look back at Lavender.

"Ashton, what do you say?" The hedgehog asks him.

Ashton shrugs. "Sure, I guess so."

The other kids notices the still apprehension on Rayna and Ivy. Zander tells them, "I know you two are still scared about Kimmerie coming to school before. But everyone deserves a second chance, right?"

Hearing Zander's remark causes the kitten and hedgebat to think it over. Suddenly, the two glance at one another before looking back at the rest of the second-generation kids.

"I guess," Ivy begins, "You're right, Zander."

Lavender squeals in excitement. "Yay! I knew you guys would accept her!"

Ashton gazes at them, "C'mon, everyone! We can still play around in the bounce house before present and cake time!" Everyone else exclaims in excitement and then they enter the house.

Lavender is the last one to join them; she stood at the side of the house to remove her shoes, leaving her bobby socks on and placing them next to the others. Before she joins her friends, she felt her arm being grasped by an invisible hand, stopping her from entering the active bounce house. Lavender stares at the air behind her.

Kimmerie's disembodied voice tells her, _Lavender, no. I don't want to go in there and so shouldn't you._

"What are you talking about?" Lavender responses.

Kimmerie lets go of her arm. _I mean—I don't like your friends. And… I really don't want you to be with them. I want you to stay with me._

"Listen, it's not nice to pull me away from my own friends and you can't make me hate them for no reason. Maybe if you know them some more, you would like them even better. Now, why don't you join me?"

She sees Kimmerie shaking her head in decline. _No. I'm not going in that—thing—with them._

Lavender shrugs, "Okay, suit yourself." She turns back to the entrance of the bounce house and she finally walks in. With laughter and a smile on her face, she begins to jump around along with her peers. The children's laughter increases in an uproarious volume, loud enough for their parents to hear them from the inside of the house.

Kimmerie just stood there and there seems to be resentment and disdain all over her face. She continues to glare at all of Lavender's friends. A hint of jealousy soon appears. What she's about to do next will not be pretty at all.

3:45 pm:

Lunch has been eaten a couple hours ago, the cake is already done and the presents are already opened. The kids continued to stay outside in the yard for a while longer, possibly until dinnertime, to play some more. Jace and Zander are playing with Ashton and his new toys on one spot of the yard while Ivy and Rayna are standing around, blowing bubbles and giggling.

Isolating herself from them, Lavender is sitting at the very corner of the yard, facing towards the fence. Her tiny ears are perking at the sounds of her friends' laughter and she wanted to join them so much. Alas, she cannot.

_What's wrong this time, Lavender? _Kimmerie asks her.

"Nothing's wrong." Lavender responds. "It's just that," she pauses as she takes a quick glimpse of them, "they're having so much fun over there." She looks back at Kimmerie with a sense of loneliness. "I don't know why you keep dragging me away from them. It's like you really don't want me to be with them at all."

Kimmerie answers, _Well, that's because… you've been spending so much time with them and I feel like you're not spending enough time with me. That's why._

"What are you talking about? I spent lots of time with you. Right after playing in that bouncy house, I stayed with you most of the time almost throughout the whole party. And thanks to you, I'm hardly playing with them. I'm missing the fun because of you."

She pauses as she thought of something else. "Are you purposely trying to pull me away from my own friends?"

_Why would you think that?_

"Don't lie to me; I know that you're doing this. You even said it before that you do not like them even though you haven't known them very well. Just tell me, why?" Lavender is about to cry from the isolation she's feeling albeit she's able to fight them back since she doesn't like crying in front of her peers.

Kimmerie finally answers, _Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. Okay? All I can say is that… I may be a little jealous whenever you're with them._

"Jealous?" Lavender begins to argue with her own invisible friend, "Well, little or big, it's wrong of you to take me away from Ashton, Ivy, Rayna, Jace and Zander. What is it that they have done to you that made you not like them?"

Kimmerie hesitates, _That… is something I really can't explain._

Having enough, Lavender stood up from the grass, "Even if you don't like it, I'm going to my real friends," she turns around. However—Kimmerie stops her again by grasping onto her upper arm.

_No!_

Lavender tries to pull herself away from her grip, "Let go!"

_I said, no! _Then, Kimmerie's pull causes Lavender to fall back down on the grass. Lavender only felt a small pain on her knees. The hurt lasted only a minute; once it fades away, she looks up at Kimmerie.

Kimmerie's emotion suddenly alters after seeing Lavender falling towards the soft ground. Her facial expression changed from demanding to something more apologetic. She helps Lavender get up and impetuously, she hugs her.

_I'm really sorry. I never meant to do that. _Kimmerie whispers.

As Kimmerie persists the hug, Lavender became perplex about her sudden behavior. She grasps onto Kimmerie's shoulders as she tenderly pulls her off. "That was still wrong of you to do that, but—I guess that's okay."

"Lavender!" Ivy calls out to her as she and the others kids run up to her after witnessing her fall. "Are you okay?" The kids stood behind her.

Lavender didn't face back to them. She continued to stare at the fence. They became confused about what she's been doing throughout this entire time and her behavior is becoming a worrisome for them.

Ashton steps up to her, "Lavender?" He has his hand touching her shoulder.

Lavender didn't respond at all. It's almost like she's being distracted at something. Unbeknownst to them, Kimmerie is whispering something to her—something that only she can hear and not them. Then, very dazedly, Lavender looks up at the top of the fence—and she sees a little bird standing on top of it.

"Lavender?"

Inside the house…

While all the dads are in the living room, the moms are in the kitchen, sitting at the dining table and having fruit mocktails (that is cocktails without any alcohol in them). Amy begins the conversation as she takes a sip of her strawberry-lime drink.

"Guys," She sets her glass on her coaster, "I'm really worried about my daughter lately."

Cream answers, "Why?"

With her, Tikal, Blaze and Rouge making eye contact with her, Amy tells them,

"Ever since her imaginary friend came into the picture, Lavender seems so possessive and protective of her. She refused to stay away from her or even leave her." Amy twirls around the colorful straw in her alcohol-free beverage, "I worry that it's taking control of her life.

"And not only that, there's some weird changes going on with her."

"What kind of changes?" Blaze asks.

Amy continues, "Lavender has been isolating away from her friends lately. She used to be playful with them, but now," She looks through the kitchen window that leads to the yard. She notices that Lavender is sitting in the corner alone while all the kids are playing with each other. "She's not."

The others look through the window as well. They knew what she's talking about. Afterwards, they gaze back at her.

"Maybe this is more than just a phase." Cream informs.

"Maybe." Amy worriedly replies. "And not only that: she's been getting into a lot of trouble as well. Whenever Sonic or I discipline her over things she has done, like drawing on the walls or knocking things over, Lavender kept saying that 'Kimmerie' did it."

"Amy," Blaze begins, "I don't mean to scare you, but do you think that you may need to take Lavender to a specialist? By that, I mean a child psychologist."

Amy heard those words from the purple cat. "I don't know, Blaze. She's pretty stubborn; I don't think she would accept that."

At that moment—screams from the children are being heard. The screams are loud enough to send everyone jumping from their seats. With fright and apprehension, the moms got out of the dining and right away, they head out to the yard to see what's going on. Along with them, the dads—who heard the screams, too—ran out of the living room.

By the time they got there—all of the parents could see their kids in complete distress. They were perplexed at first because the kids had their backs turned towards them. They don't know what they were screaming and crying about.

When Ashton noticed their parents in the yard, he and the rest—barring Lavender—ran up to their parents, crying in what seems to be terror. Ivy held onto Silver and Blaze; Rayna grasps herself on Shadow and Rouge; Jace wraps his arms around Knuckles' legs while Zander did the same on Tikal; and Ashton gets into Tails' arms with Cream standing by them. They're still perplexed but then—they became shocked when they saw something horrifying.

The five young ones temporarily broke themselves apart from their embrace—and the adults were able to see little splatters of blood on the front of their shirts. They're horrified alright—even Sonic and Amy, despite that their own child didn't run up to them.

"What just happened?" Sonic exclaims in terror.

"Where did the blood come from?" Amy did the same.

The screaming and crying have stopped albeit the kids are still weeping in fear. Ashton unsteadily points his finger at Lavender Rose at the corner. Sonic and Amy follows where his finger is pointing at until the trail ends to their daughter. The hedgehog couple gasps at the sight.

Right in front of Lavender: is a corpse of a bird, brutally slaughtered. The front of her dress is covered with its blood and in her tiny hand—is a large rock, also coated with blood. She is just staring blankly at the dead bird.

"Lavender!" The hedgehog couple called out in unison as they ran up to her. Sonic grasps his arms around Lavender while picking her up from the ground and she—dazedly—drops the rock on the ground. The two examines her.

"Lavender!" Amy exclaims at her, "What did you do?" She's abruptly furious at her daughter now.

Lavender didn't respond at all. She's still looking dazed. The hedgehog couple glances at the rest of the kids, trying to ignore the slaughtered bird on the ground.

Taking turns, each child explains to the adults.

Ashton cries out, "Mommy! Daddy! Lavender killed a birdie!"

Rayna screams, "She used a rock and then crushed it many times with it!"

Ivy exclaims, "There's so much blood! And she made us look at it!" She also mentioned what Lavender did next to the bird, but it's too horrifying and grotesque to explain its brutal kill, even for a bunch of five-year-olds.

Zander cries loudly, "She even looked at us all mean and evil! She said that's going to be us sometime in the future!"

And finally, Jace screams, "Lavender's gone scary now!"

After hearing what they said, Sonic and Amy angrily look back at Lavender. "Lavender, is this true?" Sonic scolds at her.

No response from her. For the second time, Sonic calls her name to get her attention. "Lavender!"

Lavender Rose seemingly woke up from her hypnotic state. "Wh-what?"

Amy scolds at her, "Don't 'what' at us, young lady. Care to explain what you just did?"

Lavender gave them a confused look; she seems oblivious about her recent action. When she looked at herself, the blood-stained rock she held minutes ago and the dead feathered animal, she gasps.

"Well?" Amy scolds again.

Lavender stammers with anxiety, "But—but I—I didn't do it! Kimmerie did it!"

Jace screams out again, "No, it wasn't! She really did it!"

Zander finishes it for his twin brother, "She's gone insane!" While at it, Knuckles and Tikal tried to calm their sons down.

After hearing them, Sonic says, "Lavender, don't you ever lie to us and you heard your friends; they said they saw you do it! And you made them traumatized!"

Then, Amy's turn to scold, "Just what were you thinking? Why did you do it? Why?"

Lavender has nothing to say to this. She tried to hold back her pain. "I—I really don't know. I guess—Kimmerie made me do it."

Sonic and Amy are getting more frustrated with her same excuse regarding to Kimmerie. Everyone became silent and with irritation, the hedgehog couple glances at the rest of the adults and children.

Their own friends are looking at them with a combination of disdain and accusative. It's as if they're condemning Sonic and Amy Rose for raising their own daughter like this and teaching her to do such things. Already, they're assuming that their parenting skills are nothing but wrong, careless and neglectful.

Even the two's best friends are turning against them.

The irritation is beginning to fade away and now, Sonic and Amy are becoming apologetic. With Lavender in his arms, Sonic tells them,

"Everyone, we are terribly sorry about this. And I swear, Lavender is going to—"

"Sonic, Amy," Tails cut him off while he's comforting his son, "I think it's time for you to go."

"And," Cream finishes off, "I think it's best if you make sure that Lavender stays away from our kids." The rest agree with the idea.

Sonic sighs, "Look, it's—"Amy stops him by putting her hand on his shoulder.

"No, Sonic. I think they're right." Amy pauses while letting her hand down, "Let's just go."

Lastly, the hedgehog family departs from everyone. They made their way out through the house and they left without the proper goodbye.

On their way, Lavender is grasped onto Sonic as he held her. She rests her chin onto her father's shoulder while silmultaneously looking back. She wonders where her invisible friend has gone to.

Lavender fixes her eyes below towards the ground—and she sees Kimmerie following them home. Kimmerie has a malice sneer on her face and she gave her a wave.

Instead with a friendly look, Lavender gave Kimmerie the eyes of contempt.

"This is all your fault, Kimmerie," Lavender tells her. "You made me do this."

Kimmerie responds, _I know… but you really don't deserve them anyway._


	6. The Hostile

The Hostile

Wednesday 4:00 pm:

Sonic and Amy are on their way to Lavender's school. They just got a call from Mrs. Diamond that she had to stay afterschool and they needed to talk to her. She told them it's pertaining to her recent change of behavior.

"Ames," Sonic begins the conversation with his wife, "What do you think our little girl has done this time?"

"Not sure," Amy responds, "But I really hope she didn't do anything malevolent towards the kids again. Not after what happened at Ashton's birthday party. We already lost all of our friends because of what she did."

Sonic recalls the incidents starting from the day of the party. He and Amy have lost contact with every one of them ever since they were given an ultimatum. They were told that unless if they could get her under control, Lavender cannot come near their kids. Even in school, they told Mrs. Diamond to keep surveillance on Lavender, just to make sure she stays away from them.

Sonic continues, "I can't believe that Lavender quickly went from a sweet innocent little girl into some kind of demon." He meant that metaphorically.

Amy finishes off, "And I swear to God, if Mrs. Diamond mentions that if Kimmerie is part of this—I am going to have to take Blaze's advice and take her to a child psychologist. I just can't handle this whole imaginary-friend-shit over and over again. She left me no choice."

"Can't agree with you more." Sonic agrees.

The two made it to the school's front door. Sonic carefully pulls the door open and allows his pregnant wife to enter first before him. Standing in the middle of the lobby, they glance around the corridors, wondering where they should be.

"What room did she say again?" Amy asks him.

"I believe it's room…" Sonic mentions the room number. They check the signs that tell them which way to go according to its digits.

They were able to find the right one. While the two walk down the hallway, they see Mrs. Diamond standing by the doorway of her classroom. She sees them and she gestures them to come in. Sonic and Amy enter the classroom. The adult female fox closes the door on their way in.

"Thank you for coming," Mrs. Diamond tells them. The three greet each other, along with exchanging handshakes.

Afterwards, the hedgehog couple glances around the colorful classroom: the white walls are covered with paper cut-outs of hand-made butterflies, flowers and trees and childish drawings are taped against it. There are also cut-outs of handprints—colored-coded according to their gender; blue for boys and pink for girls—and each hand-print have the students' names written on them.

Once they were done looking around, Sonic and Amy were able to see their daughter sitting on the stool in the corner, facing towards the wall with her arms crossed. They knew she got sent into timeout somewhere during class, which is really her first time ever.

Mrs. Diamond notices their gaze towards Lavender. She, too, faces to her. "Lavender Rose, your parents are here. I'm just going to have a talk with them and then you can leave with them."

Lavender didn't respond at all. She just kept staring at the corner.

Facing back towards the couple, Mrs. Diamond pulls out a small seat from the students' table and then sat down with her legs crossed. The two did the same; when Sonic sat down, he felt awkward about sitting on a tiny seat with his knees bent up. Amy, on the other hand, had to remain careful with her expecting belly interfering with her; however, she manages to sit down comfortably.

"Before I begin," Mrs. Diamond starts the conversation with her eyes fixed towards Sonic, "I just want to say that I've heard a lot about you. I must be lucky to have a student whose father happens to be some kind of hero."

Sonic tries to let out a smile. Remaining modest, he says, "Well, you know. That Dr. Eggman is always trying to destroy or take over us with his evil diabolical plans. Might as well keep Mobius safe."

Then, she fixes her eyes on Amy. She even heard from Lavender before that she's expecting twins. "And congrats to you."

"Thanks," Amy replies while placing her palm on top of her belly.

With the introductions out of the way, Sonic begins the serious talk. "So what is it you need to tell us? And what did Lavender do this time?"

Lavender heard them mentioning her name; she turns around for only a second to see her parents. After that, she faces back to the wall.

Mrs. Diamond sighs as she takes out several sheets of paper held together. "You see, I'm really concerned about your daughter. From the beginning of this week, she has been really rude and antagonistic towards her friends and the rest of her classmates, especially Kelly Maple."

Amy sighs quietly. She whispers, "Oh, God."

"And aside with that," the teacher continues, "she's also disrupting class with her sudden bad behavior, which is very strange for me consider the fact that she used to me my star pupil."

"We're aware of that, actually." Sonic informs her.

"Last Saturday," Amy tells her, "she went to Ashton's birthday party, but then things got out of hand. So—she pretty much lost her social life."

"You really don't want to know what Lavender did there," Sonic finishes it for her.

Mrs. Diamond nods her head, "I see." She looks down at the papers she's holding. "Getting back to my concern, I saw some of these drawings she has done during art class and play time. But I have to warn you though, they're really shocking."

"Shocking how?" Amy asks.

"See for yourself," The fox hands the couple Lavender's drawings.

As Sonic and Amy go through her childish scribbles that depicts herself, her friends—and even Kimmerie—they're wide-eyed, just like she said.

The first one shows Lavender and Kimmerie holding hands and walking through a pathway of the park, holding hands together. In black crayon and in a typical childish messy handwriting, Lavender wrote 'ME' above the purple scribble of herself and 'Kimmerie' above the scribble of a white hedgehog. Nothing seems out of the ordinary for the first one albeit the two felt their spines chill when they saw what Kimmerie presumably looked like in the drawing.

The rest are the most horrifying—for a five-year-old to draw.

The second one shows a drawing of Lavender and Kimmerie setting Ivy on fire while she lies on the ground.

The third one shows Kimmerie slitting Ashton's throat with what seems to be a blade as Lavender holds on to him from behind.

The fourth one shows Lavender and Kimmerie holding onto the end of the noose rope together as they're pulling and hanging Rayna on the tree branch.

The fifth one shows Kimmerie drowning Jace and Lavender drowning Zander in the same pond together.

And finally, the sixth one shows Lavender and Kimmerie smiling together and having a tea party—with the corpses of Ivy, Ashton, Rayna, Jace and Zander lying dead on the ground surrounding them. Sonic and Amy couldn't stand looking at these.

Underneath his breath, Sonic swears, "Holy shit." He quickly covers his mouth with his fingertips whilst quickly gazing at Diamond, who is giving him the look for swearing in a kindergarten classroom. "Sorry, force of habit." Sonic then lets his fingers down and the fox forgives him.

"Mrs. Diamond," Amy begins, "I'm just wondering: by any chance that either one of her friends saw her drawings?"

She shook her head, "I don't think so; not even their parents know about them."

Sonic glances at the crayon drawings again, "I can't believe Lavender would go too far into thinking that she would want to perform homicide on them. It's like the movie, _Sinister._"

Amy cuts in, "Maybe she's still feeling—I don't know—distressed," she couldn't think of a word for Lavender's behavior, "from the party. She has been in isolation."

Mrs. Diamond informs them, "I don't mean to falsely accuse you two," The hedgehog parents glance at her, "but could it be that your lack of parenting skills could be the source of her alteration of behavior?"

"We would never raise Lavender like this," Amy answers. "We swear."

"Her behavior is just all of the sudden." Sonic answers as well. "However, it just happened as soon as she made an imaginary friend."

The teacher seems to understand what they said despite she still feel suspicious about them. "Well, regarding to her 'imaginary friend,' you may have known that she is causing all these disruptions lately during class and some more trouble. And just today, I had to put her into timeout for writing numerous profanities on the small whiteboard—with permanent marker."

"What?" the two are more wide-eyed with shocked.

"Yes, I'd show you, but—"

"Please, don't." Sonic stops her before Diamond was about to take out the small portable board that Lavender used from underneath the desk. "We don't even want to know what she wrote."

Mrs. Diamond continues, "Anyway, when I caught Lavender writing all these—curse words—she told me that 'Kimmerie did it.'"

Amy sighs in more irritation, "I knew she would say something like that. She kept using that same excuse over and over again every time she does trouble back at home. This has gone too far now."

Sonic informs the teacher, "Don't worry, we are definitely going to teach her a lot of discipline and punishment when we take her home."

"To tell you the truth," Diamond says, "I don't think that punishment would be enough for her. Since your daughter is getting way out of hand with herself and this—Kimmerie-thing—I strongly suggest you take her to a—"

"Specialist," Amy finishes for her. "I know, I was thinking about that as well."

"We'll try to make an appointment with a child psychologist as soon as possible." Sonic says.

"Good," Diamond concludes. She takes Lavender's drawing back from the table and into her hands to hold on to in case she needed to show them to the school's counselor. "Well, that's pretty much everything I need to inform you." She gets up from her seat. Afterwards, Sonic and Amy did the same.

From where she is still sitting, Lavender Rose has been overhearing her parents and teacher without even looking back at them. Her face shows some serious contempt. She heard about what Mrs. Diamond mentioning her vandalizing one of the classroom's portable whiteboards with a permanent marker, much to her resentment. What's angering Lavender more is that she heard about Amy and Sonic agreeing to take her to a child psychologist to have her checked for any childhood issues. She never liked doctors, all kinds.

Her ears perked up when she hears the adult concluding their quick meeting. Then, Lavender hears them coming towards her.

"Lavender, it's time for you to go," Mrs. Diamond touches her shoulder.

She turns around to look at them; the three adults could perceive her disdained facial expression. It's like she's mad for being told on. Lavender then gets up from the stool and steps up to her parents. Amy is about to hold her hand, but she pushes it away.

Before the family leave, Sonic and Amy glance at Mrs. Diamond once more. "Thank you for letting us know about this," Sonic says, "And we are truly sorry about everything."

"It's okay, take care." the adult fox says her goodbyes to them.

Lastly—the hedgehog family left the classroom and then exit out of the school. Even though she wasn't in the mood for it, Lavender Rose held onto both of her parents' hands as they walk home. On their way is nothing but silence.

~~X~~

6:25 pm:

Lavender Rose is in the living room, sitting on the couch and watching TV. The living room is semi-dark with the lights from the television flashing. Lavender is staring blankly at the screen with her eyes narrowed and without moving a muscle.

Coming from the TV—there are sounds of terrified screams.

"Lavender!" Sonic calls her from the kitchen, "Dinner's almost ready!"

She didn't respond—just like back in the classroom. She continues to stare at the screen. "Lavender?"

When he heard no response from his daughter, Sonic goes to the living room. He sees her sitting perfectly still on the couch. He stood next to her. "Lavender, come on. It's dinnertime."

Without even looking back at him, Lavender finally says with coldness, "Can I finish watching this movie first? I don't want to miss anything."

Sonic takes a glimpse at the movie she's watching. His eyes widens when he first heard its actors screaming in agony and then he catches the familiarity of the film. He notices that his little girl—is watching an R-rated horror movie!

"Lavender! That's _The Mobian Centipede!" _

"So?"

Sonic grabs the remote from the couch. He sternly tells her while motivating the device in his hand, "This is something that a child your age should never watch! You'll get nightmares!"

"No, I won't," Lavender is still not looking back at him. "I saw _Saw _in my room before without you and mommy knowing, and I'm not even scared."

Sonic sighs in exasperation. He shuts off the TV, snapping his daughter back into reality. Lavender—angrily—jumps up from the couch and glares at her father. "Daddy! I was watching that!"

He drops the remote back on the couch, "Well, not anymore. Now, go to the kitchen. Mommy has already prepared dinner."

Lavender growls as she stomps to the kitchen. Sonic follows behind her.

For dinner, Amy is serving turkey slices with garlic mashed potatoes and sliced carrots mixed with peas. Minutes passed by; she and Sonic are eating their meals peacefully whilst Lavender is just using her fork to play with her food. She's apparently still upset for no reason.

The family remained silent almost throughout the entire meal. Sonic decides to bring up a conversation to keep it going.

"So, Ames," Amy fixes her eyes on her husband, "You never guess what I caught Lavender watching before we came here. And no, it's not _Frozen _ or _My Little Pony._" He pauses for only a second. "Or _Littlest Pet Shop _or any other TV shows that little girls watch all the time."

"Let me guess," Taking a good shot in the dark, Amy answers, "it's _The Mobian Centipede. _Lavender had the volume up high, I could hear it from the kitchen."

"Can't you believe that she's watching R-rated horror movies behind our backs now? What happens if she did get nightmares from watching them?"

"I told you, daddy! I am not scared!" They look at their little girl, who is staring down at her plate.

Lavender is still barely eating her food; she keeps picking them. Amy informs her, "Lavender, you know you're not allowed to watch those movies until you're older."

She's ignoring her parents. "Lavender, listen to your mother," Sonic is getting stern again. "And stop playing with your food and start eating before they go to waste."

Taking her fork, Lavender digs a big pile of her mashed potatoes and stuffs it into her mouth. Keeping a crude look on her face, she lifts up her head and gazes at her parents. With her mouth full, she snaps, "Happy now?"

"Don't talk with your mouth full either," Amy demands her.

After when Lavender chews and swallows her potatoes, she continues to stuff her tiny mouth and eat in annoyance. Then, she picks up the pace. At every one second, she repeats the process by filling her entire mouth with her food whilst her resentment remains persistent.

The parents watch her; they worried she could choke at any time.

"Lavender?" Sonic tries to stop her. No luck; she's too persistent. "Lavender?" Instantly, Sonic gets up from his seat to stop her daughter, "Lavender Rose Sparkle, slow down before you choke!"

By the time he sets his hand on her arm—Lavender did the unthinkable.

She takes her fork… and then stabs Sonic's hand.

Sonic yells out in pain while taking his hand to himself.

"Sonic!" Amy quickly gets up from her seat as well to make sure he's okay. He's writhing while trying to ease it away by rubbing it with his free hand. Lavender watches him, showing no emotion. "Honey, are you okay?"

The father inhales sharply. In seconds, the pain is beginning to fade away. "Yeah, I'm okay now."

Amy checks Sonic's hand to make sure there aren't any serious injuries, like bleeding. There's nothing alright; just four straightly aligned poked marks from the fork. Subsequently, they look at her.

"Lavender Rose Sparkle!" Amy demands her again with fury. "What has gotten into you today?! You nearly made your father lose his hand!"

"Nothing's wrong—Amy Rose!" They gasp when Lavender, disrespectfully, referred to her by her name.

It's Sonic's turn to feel the tension, "That's not how you talk to her! Now, finish your dinner before I send you to your room!"

"NO!" Lavender screams out of her seat. She did the next unthinkable thing.

Grabbing her plate in rage—she tosses it off the table, splattering her food all over the floor. Her parents are at the edge now; her sudden temper tantrum as gone too far. At least the plate didn't shatter.

"Lavender!" Amy shrieks.

"Okay, that's enough!" Sonic points to the upstairs direction. "Go to your room, young lady!"

Lavender retaliates by hitting him in the leg, "Shut up, Sonic! Fuck you! Fuck you both!"

Immediately, Sonic picks Lavender up from the floor with his hands underneath her underarms. He hurriedly takes her upstairs to her room. Lavender has been screaming and kicking on her way there.

"NO! LET ME GO! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU!"

Sonic takes her through the doorway of her bedroom and then forces her to sit on her bed. Lavender continues to scream as she lets out her tantrum.

"Now, you stay here and think about what you've done!" Sonic scolds her, "And until you calm down, you are not allowed to come out!" He exits out of the room, closing the door on his way out.

Through the closed door, Sonic can still hear Lavender screaming and crying loudly. He let out a sigh, trying to get his tension ameliorated before stress interferes. Thinking that she could pull through, he makes his way back downstairs to the kitchen.

He notices Amy on her knees, trying to pick up and clean the mess Lavender just made. She is completely furious about their little girl. She has the plate back onto the table top.

"Can't you believe her, Ames?" Amy makes eye contact with him while still kneeling on the floor. "She's throwing F bombs now and calling us by our names."

Amy gets up from the floor. "No need to tell me twice." She inhales deeply as she felt some contractions. She drops the food-filled paper towels on the floor.

Sonic gets closer to her to help her out. He grasps her arm and he then aids her to the couch in the living room. Carefully, he lies her down, resting her head against the soft armrest. "Babe, you take it easy now. I'll clean up the mess for you." He kisses her on the forehead. "And try to calm down; stress can give those twins some serious effects."

"Thanks, Sonikku." Amy remarks. Sonic returns to the kitchen to finish cleaning up and storing their dinner leftovers into plastic containers to save for later.

In Lavender's room, it took minutes for Lavender to calm down. By the time she releases all of her rage, she lies her back down on her bed, taking a few deep breaths with her eyes closed. One breath… two breaths… three breaths… four. Then five… and now six.

After the sixth breath, fatigue kicks in. Lavender turns to her side to rest her eyes for a few minutes. She still feels some anger, so she wanted to at least try to sleep them away. About five more minutes have passed in her quiet room…

Lavender snaps her eyes open—and her orbs are glowing entirely bright white.

Then, out of the ordinary—a familiar heavy white mist strangely comes out of Lavender's body. It floats from above her and then formed into a shape on one side of her bed, facing away from her. Lavender has her eyes closed again, fully oblivious about the strange cloud.

The mist transforms into a Mobian figure, about the size of a normal little child. It seemingly looks at Lavender and a little eerie giggle is heard from it. The tone of her voice sounded evidently recognizable. It sounded like…

_Soon, Lavender. Soon, the next part will come… and you will be my friend… forever. _Kimmerie sang to her.

Kimmerie floats to her closed closet and enters right through it—implying that she's temporarily going back to her painting until the next day.

* * *

><p><span><strong>Author's Note:<strong>** Yeah, getting a little controversial there for a five-year-old. My bad *sweatdrop*.**

**By the way, _The Mobian Centipede _is a Sonic-world version (at least in my perspective) of _The Human Centipede. _**


End file.
